Japan! Day 4

As Winnie The Pooh would say, it was a blustery day out.  That kind of impeded the goal of the day which was to see the beauty of Mt. Fuji and Hakone.  Instead we used our imagination of how pretty it would look if we could see it.  haha  I still had a fun day though.

It was an early one, with my alarm going off at 5:45 am.  Then a quick breakfast and a dash to the bus by 6:45.  (I realize there was an hour of time in there, but for some reason I am always in a rush in the mornings.)  

The drive to Mt. Fuji was dismal, but relaxing.  I divided my time between listening to the guide talk about the area and listening to podcasts about neuroscience (don't judge.  Everyone has to have a hobby.)  :0P  

Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan and seems like it is quite beautiful based on the pictures I have seen of it.  We were lucky that the roads up to half way up the mountain were open despite the fact that it was snowing and around 20 degrees F out.  Many of us, including myself were very much not prepared for this cold weather. 

 Luckily, I don't have temperature sensation in my feet so the fact that I was wearing flip flops actually didn't matter.  I even tested if I could feel cold by sticking my foot in a snow bank.  Nada.  After a while of walking around my feet went completely numb and kind of hurt, but other than that the cold was no problem.  For my feet that is.  The rest of my was quite cold.  

One of the highlights of the stop was to go to a Shinto temple for the goddess for good marriage.  Since one of my most bestest friends has recently gotten married I made a special wish just for them.  :0)  My guide showed me the proper way of doing it which goes: toss the coin in the well, bow twice, clap twice, close your eyes, fold your hands and say a prayer, bow twice, and clap twice more. 

The rest of the brief half hour stop (worst part about tours is you always feel hurried) I spent trying to stay warm in the gift stores.  I didn't want to buy anything (way too expensive!) so I kept myself busy by taking pictures of some of the cute/strange items for sale.

This wasn't for sale, but I didn't know where else to put this picture.  haha  I want my toilets with seat warmers back!  

Now that is an epic cheese stick!

From what I can tell, these were plastic baby heads, like off of a doll.  You could lift up their skull and inside was something that looked like Vaseline and lotion mixed together.  It it hadn't been $30, I would have definitely bought one.  haha

Is this golden poo?  Awesome!

This mysterious object was in the port but also didn't know where else to stick this picture.  

I got back to the bus early and my ship dad and I built snowmen.  :0)  It was too bad my hands don't share the immunity to temperature that my feet do!  Still, it was very fun making my first snowman in 5+ years!

Then back on the bus to the Mt. Fuji museum.  Again we only had a half an hour which I spent watching a dance and music performance.

We got our lunches on the bus and I took a picture.  EVen though I think those lunches were usually pretty disgusting, I know I will miss the sight of them when this voyage is over.

I could tell Hakone would be beautiful when the sun was out and visibility was better, but as it was, things all kind of looked pretty dreary.  I did have fun riding on some gondolas and boat across the lake.  The fog even cleared enough for a few minutes for me to get some pictures of the shore.  :0)  

Then a bus drive back and I had to say goodbye to land for a long time.  I think we have 10 or 11 days at sea now which will be full of the mountain of homework I haven't had time for over the last month.  I'm actually looking forward to the rest and being able to just hang out with people.  There still may be one or two people I know on this ship who I have not converted to Whovians.  :0P

We got a send off from port by an excellent band playing a mashup of every American song I can think of (disney, christmas, patriotic, etc.)

Beijing (Part 3)

   Another bit of a drive brought us to the Great Wall.  I asked to bring my wheelchair, but the guide said that it wasn't accessible.  Sad face. I asked how far it was and she said it was just a little, easy walk.  No big deal.

   In reality, it was 20 minutes of this:

haha  Oh well, I did ok as long as I went slow and took breaks.  So no harm done and I got some exercise.

At this point on the trip, I had been adopted by a couple of life long learners and they bought me a panda hat since I didn't have a chance to get money at the hotel the night before.  I flipping love that panda hat!  I don't care how ridiculous I look, I am going to wear it even in the middle of a California summer when I get home!  

ridiculous

I made it to the top of the hill and took a gondola the rest of the way up to the wall.  It was a very scenic trip.  I didn't have my usual mini-panic attack that usually accompanies use of ski lifts or gondolas.  

The ride was really pleasant and scenic.

Then I was on the Great Wall of China!  A place I had seen in pictures and film since before I can coherently remember and I was standing on it!  There was much rejoicing and picture taking.

It was even more beautiful and more amazing than I could have imagined.  Plus, I was able to do the hiking and climbing required to get around!

On the way down, I had fun taking my time and looking at the booths selling really nice souvenirs.  The vendors were super pushing, going as far as grabbing us, but I didn't really mind.  I just would say I had no money (which was true) and move on.  Part way down I ended up finding a stray $5 and was able to get a beautiful embroidered picture with it.  At the very end of the way down, I found an additional $3 and this guy was SO nice in giving me a piece of marble with my name carved in it for that price.  He knew I really didn't have any more money and I really wanted the stamp.  Very nice guy.

Some people commented on my stroke walk (I actually look like I had a stroke when I walk downhill.  Those leg muscles never quite recovered from the stroke.) but I didn't get as many stares or comments as I expected.  

There were some strange and interesting things in the market lining the path back from the Great Wall.  I saw this and gave up trying to decide what was going on there.  

And naturally, there were camels.  Why wouldn't there be camels right?

On the way back, we were running early so we got to stop at a tea house.  We participated in a tea tasting demonstration which was really fun.  I never knew that making and drinking tea was such an art!  I liked most of the teas I tried, especially the fruit tea!  I spent an embarrassing amount of money on the tea and had fun taking pictures of the decorations.  

Dinner was at one of the most popular restaurants in the city.  It specialized in duck which was something I had never tried before.  After I heard how the poor duckies were raised, I almost didn't want to try them ever.  ( I did try the duck and it was delicious.  I justified it with the fact that the duck was already dead and I didn't want it to go to waste.  Weak, I know.)  The ducks are raised in increments of 15 days.  They start out free ranging on the river banks for 15 days to build up their muscle.  Then they are packed into a small pen and overfed.  The overfeeding and the inability to move make them gain a bunch of fat.  Then they free range again, and then they get put back in a pen but the floor of that pen is on a hot plate.  This is where it get's REALLY sad.  The hot plate is so hot that it burns the duck's feet so they jump and hop to try to not have their feet burn.  They are forced to do this for days and days until their meat is deemed perfect and they are killed for food.  So sad!